Suchergebnisse

A government without citizens -- The rise and fall of a slaveholder's republic -- Schools of citizenship -- Defining loyalty in an age of emancipation -- Loyalty under fire -- It looks much like abandoned land

While historians have long been aware of the haphazard and chaotic nature of emancipation in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the machinations of the southern legal system has been understudied. Particularly at the county level–where precedent to say nothing of interwar cases on the docket, which were decided only after the Civil War ended–together make the southern courtroom an important site of contest. What this paper examines are the many ways in which wartime battles over the terms of emancipation carried on in southern courts: battles in which former slaves displayed a canny awareness of not only the politics but the minutiae of the legal system. This paper contributes to the work of historians like Christopher Waldrep and Laura Edwards, while at the same time staking out new ground by using the literature on the 'second slavery' to question the paradigm of freedom in the Reconstruction literature.

In November 1840, Joseph Ryals was elected to the position of local constable in Attala County. Carved out of Choctaw lands only seven years before, Attala was relatively poor, dominated by hill country farmers. Over the span of only a few years, the county had become a base for the state's Democratic Party and by 1840, as part of a hotly contested election across the country, Whigs and Democrats in Attala took part in a raucous campaign. The character of the election—the impassioned speeches, the public party meetings, the barbecues—would come to dominate mass American politics by the middle of the nineteenth century. When the ballots were counted, Democrats hung onto Attala, though they would lose ground in the state overall. Once the bruising campaign was over, however, Joseph Ryals faced a serious challenge. Having won his position in local government, he still was required to post a bond of $1,000 to hold elected office.